Billionaire Peter Thiel apparently thinks activist Greta Thunberg and AI “doomers” are “legionnaires of the antichrist,” the PayPal and Palantir co-founder reportedly said in a recording reviewed by the Washington Post.
The recording is from a four-part lecture series on the Antichrist, aptly titled “The Antichrist: A Four-Part Lecture Series,” according to the Post. In the lectures, which were told to be off the record according to the event listing, Thiel laid out his religious views.
Reuters reported that Thiel has become cautious that an ntichrist who promises to stop something like AI will emerge and forge a one-world government. That person would curtail individual freedoms and human innovation.
“In the 17th, 18th century, the Antichrist would have been a Dr. Strangelove, a scientist who did all this sort of evil crazy science,” Thiel reportedly said. “In the 21st century, the Antichrist is a Luddite who wants to stop all science. It’s someone like Greta or Eliezer.”
The Luddites were former textile workers in the early 19th century who destroyed machines used to replace their labor; “Luddite” has become a term to refer to technology skeptics or opposer.
Thiel also referred to Thunberg, who rose to fame for her climate activism and was recently detained by Israel along with other activists on an aid flotilla to Gaza. (It is apparently not the first time he associated her with the Antichrist.)
He also named Eliezer Yudkowsky, a prominent AI researcher whose new book, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, poses AI as an existential threat. As Gizmodo pointed out, Thiel started funding Yudkowsky’s “Singularity Institute” in 2005.
Reuters also recently reported that Thiel warned fellow billionaire Elon Musk against donating to charities.